Stories of Women Giving

“After many years helping donors navigate their philanthropic journey, the light bulb went off and I realized that I'm a donor, too. I may not be wealthy, but I, too, am a philanthropist. Instead of just writing a check to this charity or that charity, I started to really explore what I was passionate about and what was most important to me.”

Heather Gee

Helen Leon is a quiet philanthropist whose gifts to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and the Orlando Health Foundation honor her husband's memory. It is a philanthropic journey founded on relationships. Following his death in 1991, Mrs. Leon eventually moved to Orlando where she knew few outside of her family and church members. She decided to go to the hospital and volunteer to become better integrated into the community. When asked why she chose the hospital, Mrs. Leon replied, “That's what I kind of know.”

Helen Hall Leon

“There are lots of things I care about, but I can't do something about all of them in a big way. I focus my larger gifts on those I care about most. The organizations I choose to give to I give to purposefully. I pay attention to what they're doing and I support those where I have confidence in the organization to use my gift to make a difference in the most effective way possible.”

Marnie Maxwell

For Judge Pat Riley meeting lawyers in Eldoret, Kenya became the foundation for her international philanthropic activism.  She asked Dr. Joe Mamlin, founder of AMPATH, a comprehensive medical initiative to combat HIV/Aids in Eldoret, “this is great for doctors, but what can lawyers do?”  The Eldoret lawyers she met described the need for a legal aid clinic and so Riley created LACE, the Legal Aid Clinic of Eldoret, to provide the poor with access to the legal system.

Judge Pat Riley